


Prey

by MarkedClassified



Category: Short Stories for the Bored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 12:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14425743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarkedClassified/pseuds/MarkedClassified
Summary: Follow Johnathan on his daily hike in the woods. But be warned, you might not make it back alive.Special guest character Paranoia by Kalciferous! Find her on Instagram as @kalciferous_





	Prey

Slam!

Johnathan closed the door to his SUV and locked it. "One day closer to that perfect beach body.", he mumbled. Johnathan walked to the beginning of the trail and scanned the giant map and read the regulations as he had dozens of times before. He was trying to get fit for the summer and succeeding. Johnathan was well on his way to becoming one of the thousands of "chick magnets", as he called them. Not a very selfless goal, but a goal he could set his mind to.

Johnathan checked the laces on his hiking boots, making sure he wouldn't end up tripping on them during his workout. As he bent down he saw a carving on one of the bottom legs of the sign. It read:

G t ut

He attempted to read it in full, but someone had scratched out some of the letters to create a crude heart.

After re-tieing his shoelaces Johnathan started his daily hike.

He made his way through the trees. Left, right, over a stump or two. Then he sees something that was never there before. A tree was scarred with deep cuts, almost like a bear's. But there aren't any bears in this part of the woods. I'm sure of it. These look too deep to be made my one anyway…I wonder what did this? Tracing his fingers over the cuts, he feels the familiar stickiness of tree sap. These are fresh. Johnathan decided to take a picture, thinking one of his friends would know what could have made the markings.

Making his way further into the woods Jonathan notices the trail is not as obvious as before, like it's been slowly eroding away. Going off of memory he continues, confident in his sense of direction and memory of the trail.

Snap.

Johnathan freezes. He slowly turns his head towards the sound and something caught his eye. A flash of something dark. A shadow, maybe. It's the middle of the day though. Maybe I'm just tired. I didn't really get much sleep last night. He turns back and continues onward, passing whatever he saw as his mind acting up his lack of sleep.

Venturing even deeper into the woods Johnathan starts to get into his usual rhythm. Humming and occasionally taking a break to hydrate. Getting this year's ideal beach body is a lot of hard work.

During one of his water breaks Johnathan hears a small voice. Quiet, but just able to be heard. He follows this voice and from afar sees a girl curled up with her knees to her chin, crying. This girl had the biggest and brightest mop of hair he had ever seen. A bright ginger and hundreds of tight curls, long enough to reach the ground. Johnathan calls out to her, "Hey! Are you okay? Are you hurt?". She doesn't respond. He walks over to her and crouches down. "Are you alright? What's wrong?", he asks her. She raises her head and gazes into the distance. Tears are streaming down her face, but her eyes are calm and glazed. Her lips move like they're trying to say something, but nothing comes out. "Hello? Did something happen to you?", Johnathan asks her, hoping for an answer. Finally her lips start to make a noise to match their movements. "Get- get out.", she whispers. "What? Get out? Why?" Johnathan questions. Crying or not, she needs to tell him what's going on. She moves her eyes to meet his, and her lips move again. Silence again. "What's your name? Mine's Johnathan. You're okay, nothing to worry about.", he says, trying to calm her down and get her to talk. "Paranoia. My name- Paranoia. You need to get out get- I'm Paranoia. Not safe here."

Johnathan attempted to produce a response but was cut short by Paranoia suddenly bursting out into a kind of crazed laughter. He jumped back, startled and scared. Why is she laughing? Oh god why is she laughing? He reached for something to grab onto, some kind of weapon, but only came up with a dull pocket knife. As soon as he was able to unsheathe the knife he felt a large, thin hand clasp around his left ankle. Johnathan felt pain shoot through him and looked down to find claws digging into his skin, drawing fresh blood. The claws. Claws that made the markings. He follows the hand to the wrist, to the attached arm, and sees a mangled mess of flesh that could have once been human. Parts of it were missing. The top half of its head was…gone. Johnathan could see the base of what must have been a brain. The body is thin, almost starved, and looked to be badly burned. Johnathan screams and hurls the knife at its wrist, hoping to cut it off and escape or at least injure it enough for it to loosen its grip. In his panic Johnathan misses and the head of the creature lunges, crushing his forearm in its mouth.

Crunch.

Johnathan screams and tries to pull away, without any luck. Its bite and grip get tighter and tighter, and soon enough Johnathan is down on the ground. His eyes start to close as he loses more and more blood, but before they close completely he hears a voice that sounds so far away.

"Not safe here."


End file.
